34 



TIMHEK PINES OF THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES. 



Pine among the Shortleaf Pine and flue upland oaks, the latter largely prevailing. < >n tin- south 

 and west these hills merge into an elevated plateau with a loose soil of coarse white sand. Here 

 the Longleaf Pine is found in its full perfection and furnishes timber of excellent quality. 1 About 

 12 per cent of these pine-clad table-lauds are under cultivation, and about -2 per cent of the hills, 

 with their generous red soil, are covered with a mixed growth of pine and oak; both of these 

 divisions cover an area of not less than 4,000 square miles. 1 



The Longleaf Pine timber standing in South Carolina in the census year 1880 was estimated 

 at 5,31(5,000,000 feet, board measure, 3 with an annual cut of 124,000,000 feet. 



In 1890 forty mills sawing exclusively Longleaf Pine timber have been reported 4 with an 

 aggregate daily capacity of about 510,000 feet, taken at the lowest figure. This would indicate 

 for that year a cut of 68,000,000 i'eet, board measure, which may also be considered the average 

 annual cut for the last fifteen years. 



The exports of lumber from Charleston, the chief port, have since the year 1880 steadily 

 increased, the excess in 1890 over the amount in 1880 reaching over 400 per cent, as is exhibited 

 in the following statement : 



Mutt mint of lumber exported from Charleston, S. I'., 1o foreign and domestic ports from thi' beginning of 1880 to the close 



of 1S94. 



[Includes considerable Loblolly and Shortleaf Finn.] 



Oeorgia. The great pine State of the South, which has given to the Longleaf Pine the name of 

 Georgia Pine, by which this lumber is known the world over, embraces the largest of the Atlantic 

 pine forests. At a rough estimate, these cover over 19,000 square miles, including the narrow 

 strip of live-oak lands bordering the seashore. The flat woods and savannas of the coast plain are 

 from 10 to 15 miles wide. They are almost entirely stripped of their growth of Lougleaf Pine. 



The upland pine forests, the pine barrens proper, or wire-grass region, 6 embrace over 17,000 

 square miles. This region forms a vast plain, nearly level except on the north, covered exclusively 

 with Longleaf Pine. About 20 per cent of these lands have been cleared for cultivation. 



Formerly the principal sites of the lumber industry were Darien, Brunswick, and Savannah. 

 The logs were rafted hundreds of miles down the Savannah, the Ogeechee, the Altamaha and its 

 large tributaries, the Oconee and Ocmulgee. A limited quantity is carried down the Flint and 

 Chattahoochee rivers to Apalachicola. The railroads, however, supply the mills now to the 

 largest extent. 



The forests of these pine uplands are in quality, and originally in quantity, of their timber 

 resources equal to any found east of the Mississippi Kiver. The soil is a loose sand, underlaid by 

 a more or less sandy bufi'-colored or reddish loam. The almost level or gently undulating plain 

 becomes slightly broken along the water courses, and the forests of Longleaf Pine are interrupted 

 by wide, swampy bottoms which inclose the streams and are heavily timbered with the Loblolly 

 Pine, Cuban Pine, Laurel Oak, Water Oak, Magnolia, White and Red Bay, and Cypress. On 

 the better class of the pine-timber lands the amount of marketable timber found varies between 

 3,000 and 10,000 feet to the acre. The trees yielding lumber and square-sawn timber of the highest 



1 Kirk Hammond, Census Report, Vol. VI, Cotton production of South Carolina. 

 'Hammond, 1 c. 



:i Report of Tenth Census, Vol. IX. 



4 Lumber Trade Directory, Northwestern Lumberman, Chicago, July, 1890. 



5 From the so-called wire-grass .IriHtidastricta, the most characteristic plant of the dry, sandy, pine barrens 

 from western Alabama to the Atlantic coast. 



